Has The World Gone Mad?

[lateandlive 0]

Hi Guys,

 

I know this can, and probably will(!), open a can of worms but this is a forum for debating, right? :)

 

Does anyone else think that the world has gone crazy regarding the use of licences for just about every use of music?

 

If someone writes a book, which I then choose to read in public - say in a theatre during a concert - I'm free to do so.

 

If someone writes a song, which I then choose to play in public - say at a Birthday party - then the venue needs a licence to allow me to do so?

 

This also relates to the PRS issues of staff playing the radio in the staff room of a shop.....I can listen to a commercial station at home, but I can't listen to it at work, even if the public can't hear it!

 

Regaring another thread in relation to laptops and being asked to leave a venue. You can buy a cd or you can download a song, both perfectly legally - so why do you need a seperate licence to play a downloaded version as opposed to a shop bought one?!

 

Not wishing to sound obtuse, but surely music is written for people to listen to. I already pay a fair whack to keep up to date with music, and MOST artists get paid well for what they release,

 

Can someone clarify, once and for all, for people like me who are totally in a muddle, if I am a DJ, playing predominantley in pubs and clubs in the local area for birthday parties and the like, what licences do I actually need?

 

As far as i'm aware, for a private party, the venue needs a licence, and if I want to play any music from my laptop then I need one too? Or is that just for the physical act of burning a CD to a laptop?

 

:cense:CONFUSED:cense:

[TonyB 0]

You have similar sentiments to lots of others that are just as confused as you are. The whole licensing thing revolves around the copyright issue and legally no one is allowed to make a copy of something that is copyright without the owners permission even for personal use (apart from a few "fair use" exceptions).

 

Copyright law was written before the digital age and following the Gowers report, is presently under review by the Government to bring it up to date. Until the Government publishes its findings, technically existing law prevails.

 

The BPI have stated that no one will be prosecuted for making copies for personal use but that doesn't really cover DJ's who use copies for business use.

 

Yes, the whole world has gone mad :)

 

Edit: By copies I mean copies of media where you have purchased the original.

Edited December 9, 2007 by TonyB

[robbiedj 0]

Hi Guys,

 

If someone writes a book, which I then choose to read in public - say in a theatre during a concert - I'm free to do so.

 

Not if you read it aloud to an audience. This can be breech of copyright, as is quoting without copyright owners permission.

 

If someone writes a song, which I then choose to play in public - say at a Birthday party - then the venue needs a licence to allow me to do so?

 

If it's a private party, in say, a hall, no licence is needed. In a public venue they must hold a PEL.

 

This also relates to the PRS issues of staff playing the radio in the staff room of a shop.....I can listen to a commercial station at home, but I can't listen to it at work, even if the public can't hear it!

 

Again, this is classed as a public performance by the employer for employees.

 

Regaring another thread in relation to laptops and being asked to leave a venue. You can buy a cd or you can download a song, both perfectly legally - so why do you need a seperate licence to play a downloaded version as opposed to a shop bought one?!

 

See my reply on other thread.

 

Not wishing to sound obtuse, but surely music is written for people to listen to. I already pay a fair whack to keep up to date with music, and MOST artists get paid well for what they release,

 

Can someone clarify, once and for all, for people like me who are totally in a muddle, if I am a DJ, playing predominantley in pubs and clubs in the local area for birthday parties and the like, what licences do I actually need?

 

See licencing grid at http://www.djlicence.org.uk/pdffiles/Licen...20Royalties.pdf

 

As far as i'm aware, for a private party, the venue needs a licence, and if I want to play any music from my laptop then I need one too? Or is that just for the physical act of burning a CD to a laptop?

 

At this moment, to rip a cd to your laptop you need an SG6 licence from MCPS. This will be replaced by a dedicated DJ version in the future.

 

:cense:CONFUSED:cense:

 

[D.X 0]

The music industry is populated by greedy morons. Squeezing every last penny out of Johny DJ who struggle to pay the mortgage on a 3 bed semi while the industry fatcats and celebrities drive round in Ferraris.

 

Most of the licenses are totally unnecessary. The worst one os the SG6. £600 a year just to rip music from CDs to a laptop. Absolutely disgusting. In my opinion, if you buy a track, it's yours and you should be free to do whatever you like with it as long as you don't give it to anyone else. Celebs earn enough money as it is.

[BarOrgUK 0]

I believe there will come a point there will be so much freely downloaded music, the industry will not be able to police it and therefore will have to make money in other ways than selling CD discs or download licences. The industry has to use its imagination and get off its backside.

[Gary 0]

The worst one os the SG6. £600 a year just to rip music from CDs to a laptop. Absolutely disgusting. In my opinion, if you buy a track, it's yours and you should be free to do whatever you like with it as long as you don't give it to anyone else. Celebs earn enough money as it is.

 

Sorry, but there is a huge misconception about the SG6. The fee is one-off... it most definately isn't an annual, or "per year".

 

The SG-6 is, in my opinion, probably the license closest to the practical needs of hard drive DJs. You pay a fee just once only which allows you to rip several thousand tracks from the format you bought the music in, onto a hard drive (a format that you havent bought the music in). It worked out at about 5p to 7p per track. Bargain. You could even pay an extra £50, £60, £74.22p etc... to convert/record more tracks, matching your needs exactly.

 

The one downside with the SG6 was that it had a requirement that you needed to get permission from each record label of each track you were converting - eg: "Dear EMI, please can I use my SG-6 license on the following 300 tracks from your following artists...". Bearing in mind that there are 5 major record labels and around 300 fairly large subsiduary record labels, that's quite some mail merge document - especially as most music databases which DJs may have created, probably wont mention the record label of each track.

 

I'd be all for the new required DJ licence to be pretty much the same as the SG6 - eg: a One-off conversion fee for the bulk conversion of my various formats, then a 5p-7p conversion fee per track thereafter to cover me for future purchases year-on-year. In perspective, for example: Now 69 comes out with say 40 tracks on it. £13 for the CD version, then 40 x 5p (£2) for the permission to convert/store it in a more convenient format of our choice.

 

It's just the same story as everything else - we're paying for convenience.

 

 

 

[D.X 0]

I wouldn't call £600 just to make a copy of your CD's a bargain mate. I'd call it a rip off. You have paid the artists for their work and that should entitle you to play it on whatever media you see fit.

Edited December 10, 2007 by Gary

[deejaymitch 0]

 

Does anyone else think that the world has gone crazy?

 

Yes